RPBC’s newest recruit has big data in his sightsFriday 17 Jan 2025
After completing a Master’s degree in plant breeding at Massey University, which included work on poplars and willows and their use in bio remediation and soil stabilisation, Duncan’s research interest was fortuitously diverted into forestry. Duncan was introduced to RPBC’s Mark Paget, who had several potential research ideas for Duncan to consider working on. Having chosen a topic, Duncan received support from RPBC in the form of a PhD stipend while he undertook work on his thesis. Duncan was fortunate enough to be supervised by Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury School of Forestry Professor Luis Apiolaza and his co-supervisor Associate Professor David Evison. “During my PhD my passion for forestry has grown,” says Duncan. “The challenge of working with really long breeding cycles and how you maximise your outputs over a long period of time really keeps me engaged.” Simulating Deployment One of the outputs of his research that he was most pleased with was being able to simulate the deployment phase of the programme. “It was a good way to kick off the discussion about how we could boost the deployment of improved germplasm from the breeding programme to the production forest and how we could look at optimising things like seed orchards and the structure of the seed orchards to maximise the output from the breeding programme. “What really interested me about the programme itself is that it’s not just about breeding improved trees – you’re also working within the deployment space too to try and get those improvements out into the production forest as quickly as possible. Both of those areas are equally important. “There can be a barrier to deploying new improved germplasm for many crop species for various reasons. In forestry, we must go through the process of committing new seed parents in the seed orchards which may compromise seed yield. Similarly, extensive trials have to be managed and assessed over several years prior to the wide-scale deployment of production clones.” Big Data is Valuable to Gain Breeding Insight The availability of good data is key in gaining valuable insights to improve breeding strategies, such as genotype by environment interaction, an interest that developed during his PhD studies and was encouraged by Professor Apiolaza. “With a better understanding,” says Duncan, “we could really be maximising genetic gain by understanding and exploiting those interactions to enhance production, particularly in the clonal deployment space.” One of Duncan’s key projects with RPBC will expand on this PhD research. More >> Source & image credit: RPBC | ||
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